Some issues with acceptability.

For this part of the course the SQA lists the following:

Issues primarily relating to acceptability:

  • two types of ambiguity: lexical ambiguity (equivocation) and syntactic ambiguity (amphiboly)
  • appropriate appeals to authority, including recognising the criteria that might be used to distinguish legitimate appeals to authority from fallacious appeals to authority
  • slippery slopes, including:
    • what is meant by a ‘slippery slope’
    • what is meant by a ‘slippery slope argument’
    • the main features of slippery slope arguments
    • what would distinguish an admissible slippery slope argument from a fallacious slippery slope argument
  • confirmation bias in the construction and evaluation of arguments, that is, the tendency to notice or seek out information that confirms existing opinions and to avoid or reject information that suggests our opinions are wrong

We have already looked at the issues of ambiguity and appeals to authority. On the following pages we will look at slippery slopes and confirmation bias.